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One of the tricks with blueberry pancakes is that their minimum thickness is governed by the size of the berries: if you have big berries, you are going to wind up with thick pancakes. I find this necessitates some changes to the batter structure so that you achieve the best texture.

I also like to skip any vanilla extract, but add a little (or sometimes A LOT) of lemon zest.

What are your thoughts on blueberry pancakes? How do they differ from your normal pancake recipe, if they differ?

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Heresy, perhaps, but I'm not a fan of blueberries in pancakes. Not necessarily because the pancakes need to be thick--not a bad thing in and of itself, which I accomplish by mixing a glob of sour cream into the batter--but mainly because the berries turn into little lava balls. I prefer them scattered over the top, along with some sliced strawberries.

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

The mosque is too far from home, so let's do this / Let's make a weeping child laugh. -Nida Fazli, poet (translated, from the Urdu, by Anu Garg, wordsmith.org)

The greatest enemy of knowledge is the illusion of knowledge. -(origin unclear)

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I like a buttermilk type batter, with a bit of orange zest. Alternatively, a little vanilla extract and some freshly grated nutmeg is nice too. I do agree with Alex, though...berries on the top rather than in the batter itself does retain the purity of the pancake itself and I am increasingly leaning that way.

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I like a buttermilk type batter, with a bit of orange zest. Alternatively, a little vanilla extract and some freshly grated nutmeg is nice too. I do agree with Alex, though...berries on the top rather than in the batter itself does retain the purity of the pancake itself and I am increasingly leaning that way.

I agree. I love having choices, and with the berries on top I can have it both ways. It's like having two...two!...two pancakes in one!!

I like the nutmeg idea, too; I often put a few grindings in my blueberry cobbler, but never thought of that for pancakes. I just shopped the GR Farmers Market today, so tomorrow morning...

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

The mosque is too far from home, so let's do this / Let's make a weeping child laugh. -Nida Fazli, poet (translated, from the Urdu, by Anu Garg, wordsmith.org)

The greatest enemy of knowledge is the illusion of knowledge. -(origin unclear)

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I love them, but when I've tried to make them at home, by the time the batter was cooked through the berries had burst and turned the pancakes purple and soggy. I tried a lighter batter, but it didn't hold the berries together.

Can you make them during the winter with frozen berries? that's the season I crave pancakes.

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When I make blueberry pancakes I make sure to use a batter with a lot of loft. And I tend to pick out the smaller berries from the box. I agree that the really big berries are hard to work with in a pancake. Fussy, right?

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I love them, but when I've tried to make them at home, by the time the batter was cooked through the berries had burst and turned the pancakes purple and soggy. I tried a lighter batter, but it didn't hold the berries together.

How are you incorporating the berries? I usually put the batter into the pan and wait for it to cook partially on the bottom, then scatter the berries over the still-wet top. Sometimes I'll press them in, if necessary. They'll often still burst, but they don't usually turn the pancakes purple and soggy.

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My absolute favorite pancake recipe is the blueberry buttermilk pancake recipe from the July 2007 BA issue (it's on the epicurious site). I use it as my basic recipe and do as mkayahara does, add the blueberries (or chocolate chips, etc., if using) to the half set pancakes on the griddle. I reduce the sugar to 1-1/2 tbs and add cinnamon to the mixture. Other than that, I follow the recipe. These pancakes are extremely light and fluffy.

-Karen

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I make my pancakes for lunch, not breakfast. This way I can use the berries I just picked at the local farm. From field to fork in less than 1 hour, how can you beat that? My 5 month old girl and I picked a couple of quarts this morning. These will go towards this years jam production.

I typically use the whole wheat pancake recipes from King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Companion cookbook, but with buttermilk. The holy grail though, is a blueberry buckwheat pancake. I am still trying to perfect the recipe. I second the technique of sprinkling the berries into the just poured batter rather than mixing them into the batter. Mixing them into the batter runs the risk of overdeveloping the gluten.

During the lean winter months, I might slather blueberry jam on my pancakes instead of syrup.

Dan

"Salt is born of the purest of parents: the sun and the sea." --Pythagoras.

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I make my pancakes for lunch, not breakfast. This way I can use the berries I just picked at the local farm. From field to fork in less than 1 hour, how can you beat that?

I went out and picked a gallon of wild blueberries today, they're a couple weeks early for the area this year... maybe I'll have blueberry pancakes tonight. Just out of curiosity, I bought a small bag of barley pancake mix (ingedients: barley and wheat flours that were stone milled about 4 hours from where I live, baking powder, sugar, salt) at the farmer's market a couple weeks ago that I've been meaning to try.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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I love them, but when I've tried to make them at home, by the time the batter was cooked through the berries had burst and turned the pancakes purple and soggy. I tried a lighter batter, but it didn't hold the berries together.

How are you incorporating the berries? I usually put the batter into the pan and wait for it to cook partially on the bottom, then scatter the berries over the still-wet top. Sometimes I'll press them in, if necessary. They'll often still burst, but they don't usually turn the pancakes purple and soggy.

You've probably identified the problem--bad technique! I've been folding the berries into the batter then pouring the mixture into the skillet. Duh. Many thanks.

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I prefer my berries separate. I like to macerate them in a syrup or liqueur of some description and spoon them over. Then a f off dollop of whipped cream, some fresh grated nutmeg and some fresh blueberries to finish. Yum.

I don't understand why rappers have to hunch over while they stomp around the stage hollering. It hurts my back to watch them. On the other hand, I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a rap group here at the Old Folks' Home. Most of us already walk like that.

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Gotta cook 'em in the cakes. How else do you get that heated intensity you need?

I don't get the problem with incorporating berries into the batter, either. However, I always beat the whites separately and incorporate them into the batter for the extra loft that Katie mentions above.

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I've had most success if I press in the berries as the first side is cooking. Perhaps my cast iron pan isn't perfectly seasoned, but when any berries burst on the hot skillet they tend to mess up the surface and get the next pancakes sticky. So, using a lofty recipe, small berries AND adding the berries after pouring the pancake batter in the pan seems to insure whole berries that burst in the mouth instead of sizzling in the pan. I admit this is extremely fussy. This is why I don't make blueberry pancakes very often, even though I like them far better than plain pancakes. No one in my family besides me ever seems to have the patience to make pancakes, and the pancake maker doesn't get much chance to slow down, enjoy them and read the paper, so we usually eat toast for breakfast.

I can see how folding in egg whites separately would help get a rise out the pancakes but I'm too lazy to do that.

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I also scatter the blueberries on the pancakes just as the batter is starting to set on the bottom. The blueberries sink into the pancakes without bursting and turning everything blue.

I make my blueberry pancakes the same way and they turn out great. I do make sure that the height level of pancake batter equals the height size of the blueberries so they are not protruding out, but are embedded within the batter, thus preventing any bursting.

Heat the oven up to 180C. Cover a baking sheet with some baking paper.
Pulp the butter with the brown sugar, vanilla sugar and salt to make a fluffy mass. Pulping constantly, add the tahini and then the egg. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and millet groats flakes. Break up the chocolate and add it to the dough. Mix it in. Make little balls from the mixture, around the size of walnuts. Put them on the baking sheet. Keep the cookies separate. Bake for 15-17 minutes. Leave to cool down.

I am a Baker and Cake Decorator in India. India has a huge Vegetarian Population that does not even eat eggs/gelatin. So I am constantly looking at finding vegetarian options.

Issue at Hand:
Regular Butter Cream - American Butter Cream ( Icing Sugar 10X + Butter + Milk/Lemon Juice / Cream) is an option ..and a lot of decorators use this as it sets hard, and they also add shortening into it ..and I am like , Nope I can't eat that , much less serve it. Its too Sweet /Gritty and Crusts and just tasteless. It has also made sure that people in my country to completely throw out any butter cream cake . You say Butter Cream and they say - too Sweet/gritty.
I have been successful in the last two years to break that impression by making European Meringue based butter cream - I love Swiss Meringue Butter Cream . It is smooth, just sweet enough , takes colour well, pipes well , and is mostly temperature stable. But I can't serve it to people who don't eat eggs.
I have so far been making a substitute - Ermine/Rue/Cooked Butter Cream - a Flour + Milk+ Sugar custard (AKA Pastry Cream minus the eggs) and whipping butter into it. It tastes good - people like it ..nut its a misery to work with - will not hold shape , will not colour well , and most of all weeps and weeps some more when we chill the cakes.

So I am looking for suggestions on finding a starch that will not weep when frozen in a custard? And my second approach is to move to Aqua Faba to build the meringue and make SMBC. The starch custard option is easy and economical and does not leave me with mountains of Chickpeas .

There wouldn't be anything special in this dessert if it wasn't for its main ingredient. It was aquafaba - i.e. the liquid which is left after straining chickpeas from a tin. Up to now I have poured it away. From today I will never make this mistake. Joël Roessel, a French chef, was the discoverer of aquafaba. He wanted an alternative to eggs when preparing meringues.

Protein and starch are the only ingredients of aquafaba. It doesn't have any other additives. Cold aquafaba can be whisked like an egg white. Next time I will try to prepare some meringues with aquafaba, but now I would like to share with you the recipe for an extremely simple chocolate whip. I served it with the sub acid from an apricot mousse. My children were delighted, and so were we.

Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie and leave it to cool down a little. Whip the aquafaba in a very clean glass bowl. Add the sugar spoon by spoon and whip constantly until the foam is stiff and glossy. Add the chocolate and stir thoroughly but gently. Put the chocolate whip into some small bowls and leave in the fridge for 3-4 hours. Wash the apricots and remove the stones. Put them into a pan with the lemon juice and sugar. Boil until the apricots are soft and the juice has evaporated a bit. Blend the fruit. Leave to cool down. Put the apricots onto the chocolate whip and decorate with some peppermint leaves.

With my children in mind I prepared an extremely simple dessert using natural yoghurt and biscuits as basic ingredients. It was supposed to be for children. By default, though, I prepared a bit more and we were all able to relish it.

Put aside a few nice raspberries and four finger biscuits. Crush the rest of the raspberries with a fork and mix them with the caster sugar. Crush the finger biscuits and blend them with the natural yoghurt. Put the raspberry mousse and then the biscuit mixture into a cup. Decorate the top of the dessert with the raspberries and peppermint leaves.

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a dessert which I prepared for the beginning of the holiday. The last school tests are behind us, the school reports received, the suitcases almost packed, so now it is time for a reward. My little stracciatella cheesecake isn't that healthy, but sometimes we can overlook one small culinary peccadillo. After all, it is supposed to be a reward. For sure it was light as air, fluffy and melted in the mouth. And the pieces of the dark chocolate were so nice and crunchy. Try it yourself and like me you will fall in love with this dessert.

Put the cookies in a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin, and then put them into a small bowl and mix them with the melted butter. Cover a cake tin with the dough. Leave it in the fridge for an hour. Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie and leave to cool down. Break the dark chocolate into small pieces. Whisk the cream and then add the mascarpone cheese. Add the white and dark chocolate and stir it gingerly and thoroughly. Put the mixture on the bottom with the oatcakes and leave in the fridge overnight. Decorate with your favourite fruit.